The Match
by La-Matrona
Summary: They would never have chosen each other. Luckily, it was the Ministry's choice, and now they'll need to live with the consequences. Winner of the Wordsmiths and Betas One-Shot Rare Pair competition in Judges Favorite and Best Smut categories. Cover art by Freya Ishtar!


**A/N:** This is a one shot written for a rare pair competition in a group I belong to. It won Judges Favorite and Best Smut, and I am quite proud of it. Thanks goes to Oblivion . Baby for being the best darned beta ever.

* * *

 **The Match**

May 5, 2003

7:43pm

She was late, the stupid chit. He had told her to meet him at half seven; he had been specific about the time, and yet, she had the audacity to leave him waiting, fidgeting uncomfortably in his own study while the paunchy Wizengamot official in attendance checked his watch between sips of the Malfoy's least expensive firewhisky. For a girl who he had thought would be easily handled, she was proving most irksome.

"You're sure I wasn't early?" asked the man, one hand resting on his sizeable belly as he tried to break the stiff silence.

"No." Lucius responded without inflection, not bothering to say more as he fixed his eyes on the flames in the fireplace, as if he could glare the girl into punctuality by sheer force of will. To his surprise, the flames jumped, changing at once from ordinary yellow and orange to a brilliant emerald green.

"Sorry I'm late!" cried the blonde haired girl as she stepped through from the flames, in which she had appeared, and onto Lucius' expensive Persian rug, shaking soot from the hem of her gown, and making his lip curl.

She had dressed up, and for some reason the fact irritated him. He had told her that there would be no need to wear anything other than her normal, day to day garb. He certainly hadn't made more than his usual effort for the occasion. Granted, his usual was likely far more formal than hers, but it was less about the clothes and more about the message they sent.

"Ah! Miss Brown! How pleasant to see you!" The old man sprang from his seat at an incredible pace for one of his stature, approaching the young woman and placing a friendly hand on her bare shoulder. The contact made Lavender beam and Lucius scowl. At the moment the girl was nothing to him, but very soon-

"Miss Brown, so good of you to finally join us." Lucius took care to inject as much venom into his voice as he dared in the presence of the geriatric Ministry official.

"Mr. Everthorpe," Lavender said warmly, ignoring Lucius completely in favor of the balding old man who she apparently knew. "It's so nice to see you, truly. I think the last time I had the pleasure I must have been a child."

"Oh yes, my dear," agreed Everthorpe. "It was a decade ago at least. And I must say, you have bloomed into a lovely young woman since then."

Lavender blushed prettily, and Lucius rolled his eyes behind the paunchy wizard's back.

"You're too kind, sir," the girl demurred, shifting just subtly enough that Everthorpe didn't seem to notice that when his hand fell from her shoulder it was entirely on purpose. The loss of contact between the two served to satisfy Lucius' pettiness.

"Do tell me, Miss Brown, how is your lovely mother?"

"Very well, thank you. She wanted to come, but as you know, Violet is signing her contract tonight as well, and given who she's paired with… well, we thought she could use the support."

Everthorpe shifted uncomfortably at the reminder of the elder Miss Brown's circumstances and changed the subject.

"I see. That is a lovely gown you're wearing." As Everthorpe spoke, Lucius allowed himself to study the gown in detail, noting as his eyes travelled up then down her form that the blush colored dress served to highlight her delectable curves to its best advantage. Probably planned, if he knew anything about the girl wearing it.

"Thank you," Lavender replied politely.

"Enough," Lucius interjected at last, bored with the increasingly awkward encounter and eager to forget that his mind had labeled her body delectable. "We three have come here with a purpose this evening, have we not?" It was Lavender's turn to roll her eyes now, and she did so expertly.

Mr. Everthorpe cleared his throat. "Quite right," he agreed. "Now, some pairs have requested a more poetic contractual-"

"There will be no need for anything more than your obligation and your witness here tonight, Everthorpe," Lucius dismissed. Just behind the older man, Lavender's eyes flashed, and Lucius felt a tinge of amusement that he tried his best to ignore.

"Ah, very well," said Everthorpe, and he moved to take Lucius' normal spot behind the desk. Once he had settled there, and both Lucius and Lavender were positioned side by side opposite him, he withdrew his wand. With a great deal of flourish he waved it, producing two identical scrolls from the tip and laying them down side by side on the desktop, unfurled. Lavender peered down at them, obviously curious as to their contents.

"If you have no objections," said Everthorpe kindly, "I will begin."

"By all means," drawled Lucius, and Lavender shot him an annoyed glance, which he returned with a smirk.

Everthorpe cleared his throat and spoke in what Lucius was sure the man thought of as his 'official' voice. "As you are both aware, we are here today to finalize the Ministry approved marriage contract between Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, a widower, and Lavender Rosemary Brown, a single woman. Both magical and genetic testing have revealed this pair to have an extremely high probability of yielding magically gifted children, and as such, the Ministry has seen fit to bind together this pair in matrimony."

Lucius nearly scoffed at the word, and Lavender sighed in apparent exasperation.

"Furthermore, it is required that the pair produce the magically gifted children within the eight years following the signing of these documents, or they will risk fines and imprisonment." This time, Lucius did scoff, crossing his arms as the ridiculous litany of Ministry requirements was read. At his side, he thought he heard a muffled chuckle from the girl - _his child bride_ , he thought - despite knowing the girl to be twenty-three years old as of her last birthday… the same age as Draco.

"After the contract is signed, I will fit both parties with wedding bands which will monitor the health, fertility, and sexual activity of the couple, ensuring that all due effort is made to adhere to the requirements of the contract."

His cock was being fitted with a trace, Lucius thought bitterly.

"And lastly, the rings will ensure fidelity, and may only be removed by the Ministry at the end of the pair's successfully accomplished contractual obligation, if that is, the pair wishes to sever their marriage contract." Everthorpe paused, peering at first to Lucius and then to Lavender. "Are the terms of the contract understood by both parties?"

Lucius nodded once stiffly, and Lavender gave a soft, "Yes," after which Everthorpe smiled and waved his wand again, producing two matching quills and inkwells.

"If you will both indicate your acknowledgement by signing these documents."

Lucius snatched up one of the quills at once, not wanting to prolong the moment as he hastily signed his name at the bottom of the Ministry's new marriage contract. When he was done, he dropped the quill at once. Lavender was not so hasty, much to Lucius' chagrin. She took her time, reading over the contract before finally signing her name to it. Lucius noticed as she did so the wide loops of her handwriting, and the way she added a completely unnecessary heart where the 'o' in Brown ought to have gone.

"Merlin's balls," Lucius muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" asked Everthorpe, who had begun to roll up the two scrolls.

"Nothing," Lucius lied, clearing his throat.

"Yes, well," Everthorpe continued, "put these on if you would." He reached out with one hand, turning it palm up and opening it to reveal a pair of twin gold bands. Lucius and Lavender reached forward simultaneously, their hands brushing, as they each grabbed one of the proffered rings. Lucius withdrew his immediately, trying his best to ignore the fact that her hand was soft and fine, and that he could now smell the lavender scented shampoo in her hair.

He slipped the Ministry's wedding band onto his bare ring finger and felt it adjust magically to fit him. He twisted the ring experimentally and tugged. Though the thing spun without difficulty, it did not budge from its place between his second and third knuckles.

"Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy," said Everthorpe, startling Lucius and causing him to look up at the man quickly. "Let me be the first to offer the Ministry's sincere congratulations. I wish you all the happiness in the world."

O-O-O-O-O-O

She would be lying if she said she had never fancied Lucius Malfoy. On her first trip to Diagon Alley as a Hogwarts bound student, she had been to Ollivander's at the same time as Draco, and while she had found the boy unbearable, the father had been nothing but charming- once he had ascertained that Lavender and her mother were purebloods, and not numbered among the countless unworthy Mudbloods Draco had disparaged as he had tried various wands.

From the moment Lucius had smacked Draco on the back of the head and told him to mind his language in the presence of a lady, Lavender had carried a small torch for the man. Of course, over time it had dimmed, especially as she had come to realize who he was outside of her mother's hastily whispered, "Very rich," that morning in Ollivander's. Though her Slytherin mother thought little of the Malfoy's wartime connections, her Gryffindor daughter did not care for them. Of course, over the years, what she thought of Lucius Malfoy mattered very little in the scheme of things. At Hogwarts, she had all but forgotten her childish crush, abandoning it quickly in favor of more attainable romances. Dean Thomas had been her first kiss at the age of 14, followed quickly by some boy from Durmstrang, Lee Jordan, Zacharias Smith, Cormac McLaggen, Ron Weasley, Hannah Abbott, and Seamus Finnegan - the last of whom she'd finally let get all the way. After that, the names mattered little. There had been a long line of men and women with which she had drowned her sorrows after the war, as she had mourned the loss of her best friend, Parvati Patil, to the beast Fenrir Greyback.

Lucius too must have mourned, she thought. Afterall, he had lost his wife in the very same battle that had taken her friend's life. Narcissa Malfoy had been felled by You-Know-Who as she and her family had tried to flee from the scene of that final confrontation. Of course the Malfoy's mourning had been accomplished largely in private, after Draco had been cleared of all charges related to crimes committed as an underage wizard, and after Lucius had managed to convince the Wizengamot that he posed no danger to society comfortably ensconced at Malfoy Manor. Lavender suspected each of the judges had received a substantial boost to their vaults after that ruling.

All of that was practically ancient history now though, thought Lavender. Afterall, what did her new husband's past crimes matter when weighed against the greater needs of the Wizarding world? What did it matter that he had supported You-Know-Who if he had a working cock and a high sperm count? The magical population was at an all time low after the war, and every person mattered- as evidenced by her sister; Violet's match, Gilderoy Lockhart, still occupied a room as St. Mungo's.

Lavender watched the flames in the Floo subside from green to yellow, and her stomach lurched. Well, there went Mr. Everthorpe. While he was not her favorite of her mother's many former suitors, he had been an excellent buffer between herself and Mr. Malfoy. _Lucius_ , Lavender reminded herself. If she was going to spend the next eight years of her life with the man, she would bloody well call him by his given name.

"You know, the traditional color for a young bride to wear on her wedding day is white." Lucius spoke from where he stood near the fire-place, his eyes roving over Lavender's generous curves and the pale pink satin gown she wore.

"Are you asking whether I'm a virgin?" She replied archly, staring pointedly at the man in a way she had learned often made men uncomfortable.

"What? Absolutely not!" He spluttered, his cheeks pinkening and making her laugh. Bless him.

"I'm not," she answered anyway, "but neither are you, so I think we'll make a fine match."

The news seemed to surprise Lucius, who she supposed was more used to the traditionally virginal pureblood brides of the previous generations. She'd be willing to bet all the gold in Gringotts that both Lucius and Narcissa had been virgins when they had been married; it was just the way things had been done. Still, to his credit Lucius did not remark on his new bride's bold declaration.

"And anyway," Lavender continued, "pink is my color."

"Your color," repeated Lucius, who was staring at her skeptically. Lavender rolled her eyes.

"Yes." She spoke firmly, making it clear by the tone of her voice that she was uninterested in discussing the subject any further. This seemed to amuse Lucius for some reason, and he smirked where he stood. Lavender chose to ignore the expression and take a moment to collect herself for what she knew must follow. Their marriage contract was to be sealed through sexual congress, an even more invasive little bit of magic the Ministry had added to the rings. It ensured that the pair wearing them would need to have sex soon after donning them in order to provide a point of reference for the monitoring charms in the future. This, of course, meant that sometime this evening, she would have to get naked and sweaty with the outwardly unflappable Lucius Malfoy. She nearly giggled at the thought of what he would look like in the throes of passion. She had never met a man who could remain cool and detached with a witch riding his broomstick. Somehow, she doubted Lucius would be any different.

"Would you like anything to drink?" His voice from behind his desk startled her; she hadn't realized he had moved from his spot beside the fire. She looked up, meeting his eyes, and took the glass he offered in hand.

"Thank you."

"What's mine is yours," said Lucius bitterly.

"And vice versa," Lavender added. Lucius scoffed.

"Miss Brown, what is it you imagine I could want from you that I don't already possess?"

"I'd say having someone in the family who fought on the right side of the war would benefit you and your son a great deal."

"And doesn't Draco's match accomplish that? Many would say the former Miss Granger adds much to the Malfoy name."

Lavender shrugged. "If he ever manages to find her in America; I've heard she's a dab hand at hiding from Death Eaters." This time when Lucius sneered, his perfect teeth showed. Lavender laughed at the sight. "Oh you're too easy, Lucius," she trilled, leaning across the desk and placing her drink on its surface as she brought her face to within inches of his.

"Miss Brown," he censured as if he were warning her to be appropriate. _How perfectly ridiculous,_ she thought _, as if propriety could exist in a situation like this._

"Mrs. Malfoy," she corrected, noting the way his nostrils flared at the sound of the name. She sighed. "Look," she said, leaning back again to put a little more distance between them, "I know this must be difficult for you. I'm sure you must miss your wife terribly… but I'm not trying to take her place. She was the love of your life, and I know it isn't likely we will ever be as close as the two of you were, but if you'll just- Excuse me, but are you laughing?"

He was. The brute! His shoulders were shaking, and his head was thrown back now as the laughter spilled from his open mouth and into the air.

"Oh, Miss Brown," he managed between gasping breaths and gales of deep laughter. "You are precious."

It was Lavender's turn to shift uncomfortably as she waited for her new husband to compose himself enough to explain why he found her heartfelt reassurances so damned amusing. And he had better have a decent excuse, or she would take a page out of Hermione Granger's book and head for America.

O-O-O-O-O

The girl was amusing, at the very least she had that to recommend her. He had found over the years, that a man could put up with quite a lot if he found his wife at least a little tolerable. At long last, his laughter subsided and he was left wiping tears of amusement from the corners of his eyes.

"Narcissa Black was not the love of my life," he said. "That dubious honour has never been bestowed. Narcissa was my betrothed from infancy, and later my wife, and the mother of my heir. The most familiar title I can bestow upon her is that of friend. I loved her, but not in the way you are imagining. Not everyone's marriage is a fairytale, Miss Brown, as you will no doubt have occasion to learn."

His explanation seemed to shock the girl almost as much as her earlier declaration had surprised him. Good. She shouldn't be so damnably self assured given the situation.

"I see," she said at last, after having evidently given his speech some thought. "In that case I see no reason for you to pretend at shyness. You'll be balls deep in me shortly, the least you can do is let me enjoy it."

He blanched at the boldness of her words and was just about to tell her how completely inappropriate he found her comments, when, to his utter amazement, she lunged at him from across the desk, practically clamboring up on it to get her arms around his neck as her lips crashed against his, taking them in a searing kiss unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. At first, he thought of protesting. The girl was acting like a brazen hussy, throwing at him as if she could hardly wait to be filled by the stiff length beneath his robes; it was hardly becoming… but then he was reminded by the ring now being crushed between his fingers in his tightly clenched fists, that this young woman kissing him so enthusiastically, was now his wife. During the long years of his marriage to Narcissa, through the birth of his son and the subsequent years of celibacy, how often had he wished for a wife as warm and as willing as the one in his arms now? _Too many_ , answered a pleading voice in his head.

"Fuck it," he growled against her lips, and then wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her up over his desk and crushing her against him. Merlin, but she was lush. Narcissa, though she had been beautiful, had not been endowed with the generous breasts and ample arse of Lavender Brown. Not that he had ever had much opportunity to explore his late wife's body.

A throaty moan from the woman in his arms brought Lucius back to reality, and he groaned in response as one of his hands wandered of its own volition to her rear. Lavender's breath hitched as he touched her there, and she continued kissing him with renewed vigor, her tongue slipping eagerly into his mouth to stroke his.

Bloody hell. He didn't think he'd ever experienced anything so erotic in his entire life as having Lavender's tongue in his mouth. It excited him and made him think of other warm, wet places on her body, just waiting to be explored. Narcissa had never kissed him like this; no one ever had. He felt like a boy, inexperienced for all that he was a man nearly fifty with a grown child of his own. Why had he never taken advantage of the myriad of women who had offered to make his marriage a little less lonely? Because it was never done? Because an honourable pureblood man valued fidelity over satisfaction? What had he been missing all those years?

"Lucius, where's your bedroom?" Lavender had broken the kiss and was whispering into his ear. "Normally, I'd be happy to be fucked across a desk, but as it's our first time together, I thought perhaps-"

"Bedroom," echoed Lucius, cutting her off in his haste. And before she had a chance to say anything more, he had scooped her into his arms and Apparated them to the master's suite, directly on top of the bed.

"Oomph." Lucius fell back against the coverlet, breathless as Lavender leaned down to continue kissing him. The things she was doing with her mouth were a revelation. The way she moved her tongue against his, the way she pulled away to breathe and trail kisses from the corner of his mouth to his jaw - all of it combined with the way her body moved above him. Merlin above, it was too much!

"Miss Brown… Miss Brown… _Lavender_!"

"Mmmm?" Her voice was throaty and breathless.

"Stop," he begged as she continued to grind her hips over his, straddling him and pressing herself against him intimately.

"But I don't want to," she whined, though her movements had stilled.

"Unless you wish for this encounter to end prematurely and without having accomplished our task, I beg you to stop."

She groaned, but she dismounted, rolling to the side and onto her back where she began to breathe deeply.

"What's wrong?" she asked, sounding concerned and self-conscious. "I thought you'd done this before."

"Of course I've done it before," he snapped, but something in his tone must have caught her interest because Lavender rolled onto her side, propping her head up with her elbow as she peered at him. At last, over a full minute later, she spoke.

"Oh my God, you're a virgin!" she cried.

"Don't be daft!" snapped Lucius, sitting up beside her and turning his back to the girl. "I have a son. One who looks very much like me, thank you."

"I'm sorry," said Lavender, sounding contrite as she placed a warm hand on his shoulder. "I didn't mean to insult you. I was just a little surprised that you aren't more… experienced."

Lucius scoffed. "When your wife's sexual preference lies in the same direction as your own, it is… difficult to gain the type of experience to which you are referring."

There was a long pause, and then the hand on his shoulder slipped forward to caress his chest, and a set of truly magnificent breasts were pressed solidly against his back.

"I'm experienced enough for the both of us, I'd say," she whispered in his ear. And then she was licking the shell of that same ear and nibbling at the lobe until Lucius turned his head and gave her his lips. She devoured them hungrily, and he drank in her eagerness, letting it fill him as he felt his length grow impossibly harder in his pants.

"Right," said Lavender, releasing the kiss and turning him to face her on the bed. "First things first." And she grabbed his hand, guiding it to palm her breast fully over the satin of her gown. Lucius groaned low in his throat, and his hand flexed involuntarily around her breast. The hardened nipple in his grasp excited him immeasurably.

"Merlin," he said, and Lavender grinned, pulling him in for another kiss as her hands worked at the fastenings of his robes. She had them off of him in what seemed like no time at all, and began unbuttoning the dress shirt he wore beneath.

"You know, you can take off my dress if you like," she whispered, just as she slipped his shirt sleeved down past his shoulders.

Lucius cleared his throat and forced himself to remove his hands from her bosom. He moved his fingers from her front to the back of her gown, where he found and quickly undid a zipper. The dress simply flowed off of her after that, the fabric slipping down to pool at her hips, revealing the tops of her creamy breasts, encased as they were in pale pink lace, and her bare abdomen, soft and smooth and ready to be stroked.

"Lovely," he managed to breathe, and Lavender seemed pleased by the reaction if her renewed kisses were any indication. His whole body was aflame as she touched him. His pulse raced, and everywhere her hands stroked bare skin, he sizzled. When her fingers began to stroke from his chest down his stomach and to the button of his trousers, his already rigid penis pulsed visibly.

"I'd like to take these off," she whispered, tugging at his belt loop.

"Yes. Merlin yes," he answered, lifting his hips as she unzipped his slacks and pulled them off of him together with his pants. The chilly air of the bedroom hit him as he was exposed, causing his balls to tighten slightly before Lavender began to touch him, expertly handling his sack and sighing breathily when he closed his eyes tightly at the sensation.

"Lucius," she said his name softly, but he recognized the tone in her voice that meant she was about to ask him for something.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Would you kiss my breasts?" His eyes flew open wide, startled at her forwardness, though by this point he thought he really ought not to be.

He simply nodded in answer, letting her guide his mouth to her newly bared breasts. There, he dropped soft kisses across the silken flesh, letting his tongue dart out every now and again so that he could taste her. It wasn't until around the time she shimmied out of her dress completely that he worked up the courage to encase one of her pebbled nipples in his mouth. She gasped at the sensation, and as he began to suckle, she mewled, the sound shooting straight to his cock.

"Shit," he swore, letting go of her breasts as she removed her inquisitive hand from the member she had just felt pulse against her palm.

"Shhhh," she said, stroking his triceps and kissing his chest as she waited for him to calm. When he had, he ran his own hands from her arse up her spine and down again, an action which seemed to please her, as she arched back, offering him her breasts again.

"Suck them," she demanded, and Lucius was happy to oblige, filling his mouth with her tender flesh and revelling in the feel of them. He would have been content to spend the rest of the night with his mouth full of her succulent breasts, but she climbed onto his lap, pushing him to lean backwards against several stacked pillows, and he lost his latch on the pink, swollen nipple.

"Are you ready?" she asked him, her question little more than a breath. Lucius was shaking in anticipation now, but he nodded.

The moment she lowered her wet heat over his cock, he thought he might die. It was too much, too _good_. Had it always felt this wonderful? If it had, how had he managed to go without for so very long?

"Is that alright then?" Lavender asked, her voice strained.

Lucius nodded frantically, forcing his gaze open so that he could look into her eyes. Lavender smiled in response and began to move above him.

He saw stars. The velvet heat of her hot quim engulfed him, sliding up and down his throbbing shaft, stroking him with every subtle roll of her hips.

"Please," he whimpered, and she chuckled warmly, leaning towards him without stopping the cadence of her hips to kiss his neck and ear, whispering her response there in the sexiest voice he had ever heard.

"You're so hard," she told him. "So big. You feel so bloody amazing inside of me, Lucius. I think I could ride you like this forever and never get bored of it." As she spoke, her pace quickened and her words grew breathier. The angle of her hips grew just a bit sharper, and her downward thrusts deeper. He could feel the end drawing near, could feel his balls tightening again as his cock began to twitch, and he was about to cry out, to warn her, when Lavender gave a sharp grind of her hips against him and closed her eyes tightly, letting her head fall forward against his shoulder.

And then he exploded, his entire world narrowing to the point at which they were joined. It was pleasure such as he had rarely felt, spilling into this warm, willing woman. This goddess. He groaned as he came, his hips thrusting up of their own accord as he emptied himself into her.

When it was over, neither of them moved for several minutes as the world- which just moments ago had held only the two of them- expanded, letting in the little discomforts which had been so completely drowned out by their passions.

"I need the loo," said Lavender at last, breaking the silence and dropping a small kiss on her new husband's brow as she shifted and his softening member slid from her body. As she retreated to the bathroom, Lucius watched her go, her pert arse moving pleasantly as her hips swayed, until at last she disappeared. _Merlin above and Circe below_ , he thought, laying back in the bed, cock still wet with their combined juices. He was in trouble. When he had been informed of his match by the Ministry he had thought it an annoying boon. A young wife, while often irrational, could be managed with pretty gifts and platitudes… but Lavender Brown… Merlin help him, but the girl had taken his measure immediately and now held a weapon far larger than any in his arsenal. She had him, lock stock and barrel, because he would be damned if he would go another twenty years without the pleasure she had showed him tonight.

"Lucius?" her voice rang from the other room and he started.

"Yes?"

"Bring me a towel, would you?"

"Yes, of course," he said promptly, and then pretended not to hear her chuckle from the other room.

 _Oh well_ , he thought, _only one thing for it now. I'll have to beat her at her own game… and I'll start just as soon as she's done in the loo._


End file.
